When Rob and Julie Getlan made the move to Tucson three years ago from their long-time home outside New York City, they knew they still wanted bits and pieces of their big-city life — but only the good stuff.
Having settled comfortably in the historic Blenman-Elm neighborhood in central Tucson, they say they’ve found pretty much everything they came for — a beautiful home in an urban center, picture-perfect weather, plenty of activity and culture that they say compares to New York, and an existence completely opposite of what they had come to know.
The couple bought a 4,100-square-foot home smack in the center of Blenman-Elm, a home that started as an 1,800-square-foot “bungalow” and has been added onto and renovated while maintaining a good amount of its original historic identity.
It is the featured home in the Blenman-Elm Historic Neighborhood Home Tour next Sunday, April 10. The tour will feature nine homes and businesses in the neighborhood, which is located between North Campbell Avenue and Country Club Road north of East Speedway. The northern boundary from Campbell to Tucson Boulevard is East Elm Street. Between Tucson Boulevard and Country Club the neighborhood spans from Speedway to East Grant Road.
Rob Getlan said there’s some question as to when the house originally was built. The Getlans have been told the original home was built in 1938, and that may be true, Rob said.
But what’s not in question, Getlan said, is that he and his wife love the home, its unique layout, and the history they’ve been able to glean from a bundle of blueprints and construction drawings they happened to find in a closet when they moved in. What they’ve been able to learn from the records is that noted architect Arthur T. Brown was responsible for some construction in 1958 that expanded the home significantly.
More additions came in 1983. A previous owner installed a solar power system with panels that provide shade in the backyard where Julie, an artist and master gardener, has set up her studio and does most of her work outdoors, even in the summer.
And since the Getlans bought the home in September 2012, they’ve added some of their own touches, including two water reclamation tanks to help them be nearly “completely off the grid,” Julie said.
“We’ve tried to maintain the integrity of the property as we’ve done some modifications,” Rob said. “The house is not in the (historic) registry but it is considered historically significant.”
The home began as a three-bedroom, two-bath house with a large living room and an original St. Charles kitchen. It is now five bedrooms and four full baths with the former Arizona room now more of a sitting room facing into the backyard, where Julie displays some of her artwork. One of the original bedrooms is now the dining room in the center of the house.
Stepping up to the front door of the home, one is met by the original door with glass rondels and metalwork the Getlans had restored at a local metal shop.
“They took the door out and they reconditioned the whole thing,” Rob said. “They replaced the rondels. I love this door.”
Just inside the entry way, Julie got a taste of home that convinced her the house had to be theirs the first time they saw it.
“The wallpaper in the vestibule is the same wallpaper that I had growing up in Brooklyn,” she said. “The exact same thing.”
It is white textured wallpaper that Rob said he couldn’t tell was there the first time he saw it. But Julie put her artistic skills to work to bring out the design and then Rob saw what she saw.
“I didn’t realize there was anything here,” Rob said. “And then Julie put color to it and all of a sudden it popped out. Unpainted, you have no idea it’s textured paper.”
Off the spacious, north-facing living room the Getlans have made sure the vintage St. Charles kitchen has remained in its original form. The narrow kitchen has olive green metal cabinets and original appliances, except for the dishwasher and refrigerator which are late models.
St. Charles Manufacturing Co. of Illinois introduced the metal cabinetry in 1935 and continues to produce the award-winning product as St. Charles of New York.
“You’ll find these kitchens in a lot of places,” Rob said. “It’s just that they won’t be in this kind of condition. They will have been painted and so their value goes down dramatically.”
Outdoors, the property has four eucalyptus trees believed to be some of the largest in the city — “something you have to keep on top of all the time,” Rob said — and a solitude that seems unusual in the middle of the city, the couple said.
“This corner behind the Arizona Inn is the prettiest,” Julie said. “Rob and I were afraid there would be way too much noise with the hospital and the university, but you can stand in the middle of the street for 15, 20 minutes before a car goes by.”
It’s what the couple was looking for when they came house hunting and started their search in the Catalina Foothills, thinking that’s where it would be quiet and different from their New York metro area existence. They happened upon the house on an Internet listing and got their agent to take them to see it.
What they found was a house they loved in a neighborhood that has a little bit of everything and for the most part, is in the middle of everything.
Rob said he and Julie have been impressed by the many cultural activities that Tucson offers in theater, concerts, museums and food that they say compares favorably to New York. They follow University of Arizona sports. They also arrived during a time when downtown was just becoming a bustling center of activity.
“We just love (the neighborhood’s) proximity to downtown and all the stuff the UA has to offer,” Rob said.
“Blenman-Elm is a very special place right in the middle of town,” said Alice Roe, a 40-year resident of the neighborhood and current president of the neighborhood association. “Some people are here because that’s the house that they’ve had forever and ever. Others of us just like living in this part of town. This is a place where we feel at home.
“We have quite an eclectic variety of homes in the neighborhood. I like that we’re a microcosm of Tucson all within this neighborhood. We’ve got huge homes. We’ve got medium-sized homes. We’ve got tract homes, and we have Section 8 housing and casitas.”
The Getlans said they were sold the first time they visited the neighborhood. Their agent had suggested a home in the now bustling downtown area, but the Getlans said they had had enough of that.
“We lived in the New York metro area our whole lives and we didn’t want the fire engines and police cars,” Rob said. “We just like the pace of life here.”
